Social media has changed the world forever. In just 140 characters or an update to your Facebook status, you have the potential to connect with a complete stranger in the same town or across the globe. In an instant, Friendships are being formed. Business is taking place. People are connecting. And the world will never be the same.

But it isn’t that easy…

Many people are standing on the sidelines of social media, unsure of how to jump into the conversation and contribute their thoughts. There is uncertainty about how one can form bonds with people they have never met “face to face.”

Are you one of many asking the question, “how?”

That is why we are here and you can know one thing for sure… You are in the right place! We have teamed up with Ricki Lake, one of the most engaged celebrities on social media, to share 5 tips for connecting with people in an instant on social media.

Watch this video to hear Ricki Lake’s #1 Tip for Connecting on Social Media

2. Be Respectful.

Leave judgment at the door and respect that other people on social media have beliefs and opinions that are their own. This is what makes them unique! Just as in offline relationships, if you want to make friends, you have to be one first. If you want people to respect you, start by being respectful of them.

3. Be Inspiring.

People like social media for many reasons. Many will share that they feel uplifted and empowered to live their best life by connecting with inspiring and positive people. If you want to make a lot of friends on social media, be inspiring. Be encouraging. Be a friend.

4. Be Generous.

The more you offer to help others in life, the more “likeable” you will be. When on social media you can help others by supporting their work. Take the time to mention people, and give them positive feedback. When you re-tweet or share the content of others they feel good and are more likely to appreciate and connect with you. Remember, “it’s not about me, it’s about we”.

5. Find a Fun Community!

Following a hashtag community on Twitter or joining a group or community on Facebook is a great way to connect with people who are like you and who are usually looking for the same type of connection you are looking for. Twitter and Facebook are the largest gathering of individuals on the planet. Communities are simply small groups within. Think of communities on social media as you would small break-out sessions at a very, very large conference. The name on the door is the community. Pick the door that tells you that you share common interests with those on the other side. Then, open the door, step inside and say hello via a tweet or a post on the Facebook wall. You will be surprised that many are waiting for… you!

If you are looking for a community that is based on friendship and connection, please join Ricki Lake and the Friends of Ricki for a very special announcement and a first hand look at social media connection on Ustream at http://ustream.tv/rickilake and using Twitter hashtag #FriendsofRicki at 5pm PST this Wednesday, February 1. We look forward to seeing you and connecting with you there!

I’m gonna be honest. I have made some of my best friends online and I’m curious, are you making connections on social media? Feel free to post your social media links in the comments so I can follow you and we can connect on Twitter or Facebook because these days I spend a whole lot more of my time there than I do here.

I’ve been sitting with that and doing the work necessary internally to not let it deter me from continuing to write about what feels so true and important in my heart and soul, even if it is misunderstood by many.

I probably would have unsubscribed too if one of the bloggers I read for guidance about life and business started talking about God and Jesus.

And that’s where the confusion exists.

Christ Consciousness isn’t about Jesus. It’s about you. And me. And the way we relate. And that impacts every part of your life, from your business, to your relationships, to your financial situation, to your ultimate happiness.

When I am operating from the Christ Consciousness, I give more. I forgive more. I let in more love, connection, harmony, possibility and abundance.

And guess what? All of that translates into a better life. Period.

My business hit a million bucks in revenue for the first time when I decided to get beyond the anger at my husband (despite so many people around me telling me I was nuts to forgive), stop fighting to win and just agree to give him the alimony and child support he was asking for instead of withholding, negotiating and making myself small so he wouldn’t think I had much.

Every fiber in my being resisted. My ego said “no way” should I give him what he was asking for after all he had done. It said I should play small, withhold, protect what I had and convince him and his attorney that I didn’t have enough to pay him much.

Fortunately, Christ Consciousness stepped in. My higher self said forgive, give more than you think is possible, trust. That part of me that knows what’s true and real and good and beautiful said “ask him what he needs to feel safe and give him that, you can make enough.”

So I did.  It wasn’t easy, but I did it anyway because I knew it was really the only path to what I really wanted — harmony, peace, love, abundance, prosperity, connection.

At the time I agreed to hand over $4,000 each month, I really did not know where that money would come from. But I said yes anyway and I was rewarded.

That year my business hit a million bucks in revenue and I did have enough. I want to be clear here; there was no indication my business would hit a million dollars a year when I said yes.  It only came after my yes.

Today, my ex and I co-parent our kids. We live mostly in harmony and co-operation.  In fact, as I write this he is here helping our kids clean their room and doing laundry.  Tonight we will have dinner as a family and play a game afterward.

That never would have been possible had my higher self not showed up and rescued me from what was almost certain to be a descent into fear-based thinking, a win-lose paradigm and ultimately a business that probably would have remained mediocre or even failed as a result. Not to mention, my ex and I would have remained locked in a battle for apparently limited resources.

But it turned out, those resources were not limited at all.  When I dropped my limited thinking and action, my resources became abundant and full.

That is Christ Consciousness in action.

When we each tap into this Consciousness (which is equally available to all, no matter our religion, race, creed or financial status), there IS enough for all, there is more than enough for everyone on the planet, there is no lack of resources, there is plenty.

How would you be different today if you knew deep in the core of your soul that there is enough? What would you do differently?  Who would you give more to? Who would you forgive? How would you embody the Christ Consciousness in your own life?

For now though, I want to share with you an overriding message that keeps coming to me as we venture into this year that so many have been prophesying about.

The theories about 2012 range from the world coming to an end, to a new world power going into place that will overtake us all, global weather catastrophes, the second coming of Christ and much more.

I’d like to throw in my own prophecy, one that I think could help us all much more than any of the theories focused on anything outside of ourselves.

Bear with me because this might sound a little out there (especially coming from a Jewish girl who couldn’t say the word “God” without nearly gagging until about 6 years ago), but I urge you to hear it with your heart and not your mind.

The second coming of Christ is here, now.  We really are the ones.

No matter your religion or whether you believe in the existence of the physical being of Jesus the Christ at all (I was personally raised to believe that Jesus the person may not have even existed), Christ Consciousness lives within each of us, right now.

2012 is the year we will collectively wake up to this consciousness within ourselves, no longer feel the need to project it outward and instead begin living from this consciousness in our own lives.

Christ Consciousness has been described many ways, here are a few that help me to understand it more:

“Christ consciousness is the state of awareness of our true nature, our higher self, and our birthright as children of God. Christ consciousness is our living expression as a child of Spirit as we unfold our own divine life plan onto the earth plane: bringing heaven to earth. Living in the reality of our “christed” self is actually being fully alive and invested in who we truly are. In our “christed” self we live as inspiration for others to seek this for themselves so we can collectively move our planet forward into the divine plan for planetary transformation and glorification.” from the Center for Christ Consciouness

For you left brain intellectuals reading this, let’s examine this together.

You agree we have a higher self and a lower self, right? You can feel that within you, yes?  I know I can, even when I am totally up in my head.  And Christ Consciousness is simply the awareness of that higher self.

I believe that so many of us are working toward “being fully alive and invested in who we truly are.” This is the pursuit of purpose, meaning and fulfillment.

We put many things in our way — money, conflict, ego to name a few.

But, when you examine your true desires, do these words of aliveness, living who you truly are, and connection to to something greater than your small self resonate with what you really want above all?

Christ consciousness = alignment, atonement (at-one-ment), and a recognition that there is no more need for discord, disharmony, or separation.  We really are all in this together. And we can love each other through whatever comes our way.

I see people waking up to this truth all around me and as they do, their lives change, regardless of their circumstances.

My intention is to bring you examples of these awakenings throughout 2012.

In the meantime, I would feel absolutely fulfilled if you would share your own examples of Christ Consciousness, awakening, and coming into connection with your own higher self. How do you do it? How do you know you are connected?  Where do you see examples we can all connect to around you?

Writing about Christ Consciousness is seriously edgy for me.  As I mentioned earlier, it was not so long ago when saying the word God made me choke.  And yet, I know in the deepest place of my being that this consciousness is available to all of us right now and it will change the world.

It’s so easy to misunderstand, but I deeply trust this message and this truth, so I will take the risk of speaking in this language because I believe your heart, your spirit, your soul is ready to receive this message, even if our collective minds are not.

If this does resonate with you, please help me spread the word of this message of hope so we can rally around the good, the true and the beautiful.  It will take all of us.

It’s been a journey of discovery.  I let the not knowing paralyze me for a while and then began to realize that part of waking up meant moving forward even when I didn’t know all the details about how and could only see two feet in front of my face.  Two feet was all I needed and I was on a need to know basis.

Since then, I have been on a path of change.  If you’ve watched my blog or hung with me on Twitter or Facebook for any amount of time, you’ve seen that evolution.

From bad-ass lawyer at a big, prestigious law firm to hanging my own shingle to “million dollar business owner” to bestselling author and television talking head type to hippy lawyer to hippy creative entrepreneur to community builder/farm girl.

The past two years (reconnecting to my inner hippy and letting her out) have been, without a doubt, the most transformational of my life.  What led up to them was an intense period of making lots of money and discovering that my focus on money was as stage of evolution to pass through, not to get stuck at.

I see now that so many of us get stuck at that evolutionary stage (even many who calls themselves “conscious entrepreneurs” and cater to the “conscious business, spiritual, heart-centered entrepreneur” crowd) and today, more than ever, I understand why we must all wake up, break free and make the leap to the next stage of evolution.

We truly are the ones, it really is up to us and if we don’t do it, who will?  The path is not easy.

Evolutionary leaps require letting go of so much (often before being able to see exactly what’s going to be there when you do.)

I think of it as being on the monkey bars that require you to let go of one bar before grabbing the next and getting comfortable in the nothing – liminal – space.

In my experience, the fastest path to this evolutionary leap is by seeing and moving through my greatest fears.  Fear represents conditioning.  If I am afraid, it’s a sign that I will progress forward when I dive in to break through.

Fuckin’ a, that’s scary.

Much of these past two years has been learning to trust myself to keep saying yes, yes to the things I have spent my entire life avoiding.

I understand now that when 10% of us have done this work and woken up, the world will transform and look radically different in a way that very few, if any, of us can truly imagine.

The new world is cooperative, it’s collaborative, it’s harmonious, it’s connected.

If you would like to begin to get a vision of it, read Starhawk’s “The Fifth Sacred Thing”, Redfield’s “The Celestine Prophecy” or even the now extremely popular “Hunger Games” series.

What each of these books portends and I can feel so deeply alive in my body is that the evolution is coming — we will either willingly take the steps to make the leap and learn to live, work and love together or outside circumstances will force us into it. 

I generally prefer choice to force and I’m pretty sure you do too.

That means we need to wake up. We need to make the evolutionary leap from what evolutionary theorists refer to as Stage 6 or lower to Stage 7 and even Stage 8 cosnciousness.

We are the ones to do it.  Me and you.

(This article is one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen of what it means to evolve through the stages of conscious development – wake up – and why it’s so important.  I’ll be writing here on this blog about what it means on a practical level to make this leap over the coming weeks and months and what you can specifically do to wake up and evolve your consciousness.  You can also watch my weekly show about waking up to the truth about love and money.)

There are nearly 1.5 million fans of the Facebook page “I Am Conservative” and it’s very unlikely they are going to do it.  So it has to be us.

Here’s the really good news.  According to those who understand shifts in consciousness and have studied historical trends, it only takes 10% of us waking up to the next stage of evolution to create a cultural tipping point.

Only 10% of us wake up and the entire world shifts. 

Maybe that means wars end, maybe it means abundance for all, no more people dying of hunger or thirst, maybe it means we finally recognize that we are all in this together and start caring for each other differently.

Wouldn’t you like to be on forefront of that movement?  If so, wake up.

It’s not about the 99% and the 1% who have access to the money.  The Occupy Movement is on the right track, but It’s got the wrong focus.  It’s about the 10% who will wake up and make money and the corrupt systems totally irrelevant.

So, what does it mean to wake up?

That’s a great question and one I’ve invested the past ten years waking up to myself.  Here is some of what I think it means to wake up and make an evolutionary leap in consciousness (from stage 6 to stage 7/from tier 1 to tier 2/from non-integral to integral/yellow to turquoise), but I’m interested in your perspective.

• No longer being motivated by fear. This alone is a quantum shift for most of us who have spent our lives and made most of our key decisions based on a fear motivation.  It’s become normal.  Not after waking up.  Fear no longer has the same hold on you.
• Seeing your own anger, not projecting it onto others; radically forgiving and not being mean to yourself or others (no matter how awful it seems they have been to you.)
• No longer being motivated by the desire for a certain money size business –> we begin to see that it’s not necessary to obsess on how much money our business makes.(I’ve got some personal challenges around this as talking about my million dollar law firm is still a motivator to bring lawyers into our training programs and then wake them up to something so much greater.  But, I cringe when I see the conscious business owner set using the promise of 6 and 7 figure businesses to motivate evolutionary entrepreneurs. Hypocritical? Maybe.)
• Not embellishing, but instead speaking the plain truth.
• Not taking things personally.
• Only wanting to win if everyone wins — never wanting to win at the expense of anyone else.
• Holding two conflicting ideas as truth — paradox.
• Being able to relax into the right now (no matter how shitty it is) with an awareness that what opens up as a result of that relaxation is far better than you could have ever dreamed up on your own.
• Making decisions not based on survival, but on a desire for sovereignty.

To me, these are some of the hallmarks of a leap in consciousness that means we have woken up.  And when we do, the world does.  I’d love to hear if you agree with this list, disagree or have something to add.

I think this is the single most important conversation we can be in as we move into 2012.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.  Please comment below.

Okay, maybe that’s not your experience.  But, it is mine.

This is a truth I don’t often allow to be seen or even willingly look at myself.  And I suspect that it’s something most of us share in common, even if we aren’t able to acknowledge it out loud.

I feel terrified to share my terror with you.

Yet I know it’s part of the path to releasing it.  Dive in.  Do what’s most scary.  Feel it.  Heal it.  So here I am.  Feeling the fear and doing it anyway. (Side note: that used to be the tag line of my blog when I called the blog the intrepid mompreneur, anyone remember those days?)

I find a myriad of ways to distract myself from the terror. Work. Drugs. Relationships. Conflict. Projections on to others or even the system as a whole.  Anything to get the fear outside of myself so I can avoid feeling the reality of it inside of me.

And yet some part of me has known that the only way to heal this terrified part of myself is to face it, to be with it, to feel it, deeply feel it and stop avoiding it.  It’s real. It’s a part of me.  I cannot be awake if I have pushed my terror into the shadows.

As you’ve probably heard me say (and I learned from Richard Grossman), you’ve got to feel it to heal it.

And what if you don’t?

My understanding is that when we bury our pain, avoid feeling it or pretend it does not exist that it will mushroom inside of us until it manifests into a health condition or other crisis that forces our attention onto it.  Waking up means we have to look at all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly so that we can clear out that which does not serve and make way for the true, the good and beautiful.

This past year and a half I have challenged myself to open my eyes and be willing to look at everything I have been avoiding.  To dive into those things I feared the most.

The other night, in ceremony, I faced my terror.  I sat with it.  I felt it.  Nobody could help me.  I was utterly alone.  At times, I wanted to die.  I questioned my relationship with God, saw the part of myself that lacks faith and is sure I cannot trust anyone or anything.

Finally, I allowed it to happen. I let go, stopped fighting, gave up, breathed into the fear and faced it.  There was no escape, no way to get away, the only way — through.

By morning, I awoke feeling lighter, less afraid, more aware.

I checked my email and found this:

What if, Ali, you’re already doing everything right, even though you’re not sure?
And the surprises along the way have only sped things up, even though it felt like they slowed you down?
And all that you want is now barreling towards you, even though you can’t see it?
And when it arrives it’ll exceed your every expectation, even though your dreams were huge?
Wouldn’t you be making some really weird noises about now? Whoohoo’ing, howling… maybe even whoohoo-howl-barking?
Well?
The Universe (get your own notes from the Universe here)

It was so exactly perfect.  Because of course my terror is rooted in a belief that I have fucked it all up.  I’ve been too open.  I’ve shared too much.  I’ve told the truth and let you in behind the mystique and stopped playing the games that keep people hooked.

Or maybe I haven’t let you in enough and I only think I have.

And then I am reminded … I cannot fuck it up.  Neither can you.

Open to the mystery.  Stay focused on what you really want and worry less about how you get there.  Breathe.  Laugh.  Love.  Relax. Relax. Relax.

Relax.

It’s all happening for you.

Can you believe that?

It’s the truth.

Let it in.

Yes.

As I enjoy the post-Thanksgiving festivities at my sister’s house (with my mom, stepmom, grandma, boyfriend, ex-husband, children and many friends of the family) I am hoping this email will help keep you from being sucked into the illusion that is Black Friday and perpetuating the consumer culture that has created a lack of sustainability for so many.

The holidays have always been a stressful time for me. No matter how much money I had in the bank, I felt the pressure of the consumption cycle. Buy more. Consume more. More, more, more, more, more.

Whether I had the money to indulge it or not didn’t matter, it simply didn’t feel good inside of me. But, I bought into it, hook, line and sinker.

I found myself caught up in the month long shopping spree, inevitably culminating a few days before Christmas with frantic buying of last minute gifts. Did I buy enough, give enough, show my love enough?

Recently, someone posted an article in our Facebook group for the Whole Truth Show about a movement to refocus gift giving this year from buying ‘stuff’ to investing in services provided by small business owners, with a focus on purchasing from local community businesses.

Black Friday is consciously designed to manipulate us to consume more. (I just heard that Target started letting people line up last night at midnight to buy half-priced electronics and appliances; it’s smart marketing for sure and on the flip side I can feel the intensity of the pressure to buy, buy, buy and it just does not feel good.)

You’ve likely received plenty of advertisements encouraging you to consume, consume, consume as a way of expressing love to your friends & family.

It’s a lie, a manipulation, profit-seeking at the expense of your well-being. Wake up early, get in line for the best deals, buy into the scarcity, conditioning, control.

LET’S DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Let’s make today about shifting you from a cycle of consumption to one of creation.

When you shift from being a consumer to being a creator, you discover that your resources are infinite. You no longer have to worry about not having enough. From this place of creation, it’s always about how much more you can give than what you do not have.

So today, rather than consuming, look at what you have to create and contribute to your loved ones and others in your community by offering your gifts as an alternative to mass consumption. Or, invest in the creative pursuits and services of local business owners in your community as gifts for your friends and family.

I’d like to give you two opportunities to tap into your own infinite creative Source this holiday season so you can make the shift from consumer to creator and own your destiny.

#1: Join Craig & I at this years Integral Spiritual Experience in Pacific Grove, CA – December 28 to January 1, 2012.

This year’s theme is Kosmic Creativity, and we can’t imagine a better way to usher in 2012 than in divine connection to creative source. Read more about the event and watch a short interview I did with Robert MacNaughton here (and get a special code to save $100 on registration).

#2: The second opportunity is to join me absolutely free at Suzanne Evans’ Be The Change 2012 live event.

Tickets for this event will sell for as much as $2,497, but because I am a premier sponsor of the event and the only speaker sharing the mainstage with Suzanne, I am able to gift you with a ticket at absolutely no cost. (You will need to reserve your ticket with a small deposit that is refunded immediately upon your arrival at the event.)

I cannot imagine a better gift to ask for from your family or to give an entrepreneur you love this holiday season than the gift of attending one or both of these events. It is at live events that some of my most creative possibilities have showed up over the years.

Let’s move out of the consumer culture, and into the infinite creativity that propels us beyond lack and limitation – no matter what’s happening in the greater world economy.

I hope to either see you at the Integral Spiritual Experience over New Year’s or at Suzanne’s Be the Change 2012 Live Event March 29-31, 2012.

Note: Please grab your free ticket to Suzanne’s event today as I only have 50 tickets to give away and this message is going out to thousands of our subscribers.  Go here to read all the details about Be the Change (location, dates, etc.), but don’t buy your ticket there because you get it here for free.

I’d love to hear how you are going to make this day (and this Holiday Season as a whole) about creating not consuming.  Share with me in the comments.

If you do not have a list, the time to start building your list is now.  And that does not mean gathering the email addresses of everyone you know in Outlook and sending out mass emails using your bcc: function.

It does mean signing up with a CRM provider that specifically manages email lists, such as Infusionsoft (my chosen provider for advanced business owners who want to combine mailing list with ecommerce and affiliate tracking), iContact, or mailchimp.

Once you do that, you can then add people to your email list every time you speak, network, and via online landing pages and free giveaways created specifically for building your list.

You can see some examples of the free giveaways I have created for the legal community by checking out the free law practice management resources and video series teaching lawyers a new law business model I created.

For my business that serves entrepreneurs, I have done the same thing.

In my law firm, I did the same.  By the time I sold my law firm, I had 5,000 people I communicated with each week by email and each month by mail.  It was my relationship with these people that made my book on legal planning for parents a bestseller as soon as it was released and built my law firm into a million dollar a year enterprise in just three years.

Three days ago, I left Colorado in my RV and drove to LA.  Along the way, I stopped at Mystic Hot Springs, hosted the Whole Truth Show, listened to the entire Tina Fey Book Bossypants on my Kindle and thanks to my relationship with my email list enrolled 5 new lawyers in an $800 program (do the math, that’s $4,000 in new business, from an email, while I was driving).

This morning when I woke up, I sent out another email.  Very likely that email will bring in another 5 lawyers (and close out our offer because we are only allowing 10 lawyers in total to beta test our new program before we roll it out in a big way next year) and another $4,000.

Last week, I hosted my good friend Laura Roeder on a webinar about Creating Fame online.  I sent out two emails, spent 60 minutes with her on the webinar (actually 40 because I got my time zones messed up and was late!), and about 30 minutes doing some random follow up stuff and enrolled 8 or 9 people in her program, which will bring in another $2,600.

Now, these are not huge numbers, but relative to the time I invested in earning this money, they are massive returns on my time investment.

I am not telling you any of this to brag or make you feel bad for your lack of a list, but to impress upon you the importance of cultivating and nurturing a list, no matter what business you are in.  And, to have a relationship with your list (because a list without the relationship is totally not valuable).

Because I want you to be free and not trapped in the interminable slog of trying to earn money when it simply does not have to be as hard as most people are making it.

If you are a blogger, do not just communicate with your people on your blog, shift those who want a deeper relationship with you on to an email list and build a deeper relationship with your peeps there.  It’s these folks who will buy your stuff when you are ready to offer it.

(You can see exactly how I do this myself by checking out the free offer you can see at the top of my blog for evolutionary entrepreneurs to join our Eyes Wide Open Evolution and get a free book, series of interviews and other goodies. Having a blog without an opt-in offer on it is a mistake IF you want to monetize your blog.)

If you are a professional services provider (lawyer, doctor, coach, consultant, etc.), put out great content online and always have it lead back to a landing page (aka opt-in page, squeeze page) where you give away something super valuable and educational in exchange for people’s contact information so you can build a relationship with them.  Then, when you have a special offer on your services or an event that you are speaking at, you have a built in base of people ready to say yes.

(Check out this cool site I made for parents to name legal guardians for their kids for free as a way to build an email list for my law firm and now for those of our Personal Family Lawyers around the country or a far more simple example of the kind of page you could easily create like the one here for business owners who are ready to learn about legal, insurance, financial and tax strategies for their business.)

If you sell products, books, or anything else that is not related to your time, consider giving away a sample of your product in exchange for the contact information of the people who want that sample and then build a relationship with those folks, some of whom will want all you have to offer when you put it out there.

So, all that to say — after years of building all sorts of business on different models — bricks & mortar law firm, online information marketing businesses, membership business, subscription based models – the single most valuable asset has been, bar none, building myself a list of people interested in what I have to offer and creating an ongoing relationship with my list.

Do you have any questions about that?  If so, ask them here in the comments or apply to be on the Whole Truth Show where I can give you some live, FREE COACHING to help you have more freedom (more truth) in your life and business.  I’m committed to helping you build profitable freedom business that supports you to be who you really are without compromise without you having to invest millions of dollars (in coaching + mistakes), like I did.  So, ask for the help you need.

I used to think freedom was having my own show on television.  THEN, I could say and do what I really wanted and I would be free.

I used to think freedom meant having a big team of people to support me so I didn’t have to do anything myself — from sending out an email to grocery shopping to cleaning my house — unless I could charge big money for it.  When I didn’t have to do anything but what I was most handsomely paid for, THEN I would be free.

Now, I know none of that is the truth.  They were lies that kept me trapped inside a big box of delusion.

I’m finding freedom in needing a lot less than I ever dreamed possible.  On the road, alone.  With a very small team of people supporting my Great Work and helping me get it into the hands of the right people. Doing my own grocery shopping, cleaning my own house, and speaking my truth.

I’ve learned how to quit, let things fall away and come back if they are mine.

I’ve let go of the idea that I have to keep up with the Joneses and pay all my bills on time just so I can protect my credit score and borrow even more.

I’ve dropped my expenses down to a number I can easily generate from wherever I am and whatever I am doing by leveraging programs and products I have already created that provide great value to the world.  I only take on clients when I really, really, really love their work and who they are.  Knowing my number (the amount of money I really need to generate to support my family and my Great Work) is freedom.

I’ve stopped worrying about what other people think and started sharing what’s really on my mind, even when it’s too much for some folks to take.

This is freedom for me. What is freedom for you?  And how can you take the steps today to create more if it in your life? (Hint: It probably requires letting go of that which you are most attached to, including things, relationships, concepts and ideas.)  It’s so worth it – what’s on the other side is indescribable.  Please share your thoughts on freedom.

I didn’t know Denai personally but because we are connected through Facebook and Twitter (her moniker is the Networking Queen) and we have many online friends in common, her passing was one of the first things I read about this morning.

Thanks to the interwebs and the online legacy Denai has left behind, I knew within minutes that at 37 years old this beautiful young mother left behind a husband, daughter, mom, dad and hundreds (thousands) of friends who are already sorely missing her.

Denai also left behind a legacy of Great Work.  Eerily, her very last piece of that work was a radio show she hosted on Grief: Loss of a Spouse, Parent, Child.  No doubt this episode will provide much comfort and support to her family and I imagine it will become something her daughter listens to again and again throughout her life or when she is ready to receive direct guidance from her mom.

I am bringing this to your attention for a couple of reason:

1. If you have Great Work to offer the world that you are keeping inside because it feels too scary to let it out, let Denai’s legacy be an inspiration to you for bringing yours out online.  It’ll be something your family will treasure long after you are gone.I love knowing there is a rich history that will be available to my children after I am no longer here because of the years I have spent documenting my journey and doing my Great Work online.  Don’t wait another moment to begin creating your online legacy.

   As you do it, make sure to leave access to your passwords and accounts to a trusted team of people so that legacy can continue long after you are gone.  You may want to consider this cool service I just discovered and signed up for myself, Legacy Locker.

2. Whether you create an online legacy or not, create a private legacy for your children and family as well.  Your private legacy includes your estate planning documents to ensure your children will be raised the way you want, by the people you want, no matter what and that your financial assets will be passed on privately, protected and without your family having to go to Court.(If you are unsure what you need when it comes to legal planning for your family, you can talk with a Personal Family Lawyer® , read my book Wear Clean Underwear for an easy to access understanding of exactly what your family needs from a legal perspective or begin by naming legal guardians for your kids here on our free website.)

   And while it’s often overlooked by traditional estate planning lawyers, leaving a private legacy includes so much more than passing on your money or naming guardians for your kids, it also includes consciously leaving behind your intangible assets, those that are most often lost when a parent passes on — your values, insights, stories and experience.

   When I was in practice as a lawyer, the Family Wealth Legacy Interview process we created for passing on these personal assets was the most meaningful part of my work.  So whether you are leaving behind an online legacy or not, be sure to create this private legacy for your loved ones that will mean so much to them.

3. Finally, whatever is happening in your life right now, remember that it is all temporary.  Forgive faster, love more, and above all, relax.Soon we will each return from whence we came.

   Sending us all tremendous love for the journey.

I emerged from the incubator pregnant with possibility, hope and a new project.

I’ll tell you more about the project here as time permits, but for now I want to focus on a couple of other things … 1) my new partner(!!!) (we are in a 3-month trial partnership while we engage in the agreement process) and 2) why you probably won’t see me as the sole owner of anything going forward.

(If you are champing at the bit to hear more about what Craig and I are giving birth to, you can subscribe to his Facebook using the new subscription function and check out the videos, pictures, and updates he has been posting about our process.)

In the meantime, drum roll please …. I have found the gal I think is the ideal partner for my LIFT, Money Map and Eyes Wide Open business!  I’m cautiously optimistic.

Her name is Rachel Rofe and as I was making my list of potential licensees/partners, she was one woman I hoped would show interest.

Lo and behold, Rachel’s email popped up in my inbox a few weeks ago after I wrote my post about the opportunity and now, just one month later, she has just about fully transitioned in her customer service team and moved our content onto her systems while we engage in this trial period partnership and dive into the agreement process.

And not a moment too soon, I tell ya!

When I look at the mess my company devolved into without the right leadership at the helm (I simply could not lead multiple businesses, be a mom, do my personal work, and maintain relationships with friends and family the way I want and the people I had in place unfortunately could not run things without me), it’s truly a miracle that it had the financial success and impact it did this year.

I have repeatedly experimented with exiting my businesses by leaving them in the hands of a team built to run the respective companies three times now and each time I have failed miserably.

While I so want to believe that a non-owner led team can carry on the work of the owner/founder (I mean they do it in the big companies, right?), that just has not proven to be the case for me.

People have said it’s because I have not been willing to fully trust and let go enough, but I don’t think that’s it because when I have fully trusted and let go, time and time again what I created crumbled without me driving things ahead.  This last debacle was a doozy.

And while I CAN drive, it’s simply not my zone of genius to do so.

So I’ve been on a mission to discover the source of my miss-takes.

When things go awry, I have been taught by one of my most favorite teachers, Reverend Michael Beckwith, that something is seeking to emerge and it’s my job to be aware of it and give birth to it.

So I have been asking myself for months what that might be and now that I have some hindsight, I believe it might be that what was pushing it’s way through and out was the realization that partnership is the evolutionary edge of the new paradigm.

Rather than trying to maintain a hierarchical structure in which I am the owner and people I pay are running the show, I am diving into a model in which I don’t need to be in control of anything except that which I am truly the very best at and instead choosing to bring in the right partners, so I can let go of the rest.

Yes, I’ll have to share the success.  And yes, partnership can be challenging and messy.  But, so is life.

So for now on, partnership in any and every business venture or endeavor I get into.  I feel zero draw to being the sole owner of anything anymore.

Entering into partnership can be scary.  Many folks will tell you to avoid it like the plague.

But I feel as if it’s the next phase of our (my) evolutionary development.

To be in partnership requires learning how to get along, work together, not have to own all of it, but instead sharing and together creating a bigger pie — it seems to me it’s what we need more than anything in this world right now.

And it’s not necessarily easy or even taught.

So here are a few things I’ve learned about partnership so far:

1. Partner with people who have proven results, not potential (I’m notorious for falling in love with potential, but I’m entering into this partnership with a broader view — Rachel is a proven internet marketer);
2. Partnership requires a high degree of self awareness, truthful communication with self and others and is best done with the support of a community, not in isolation (If you do not have a community to support your partnership, consider bringing in a third party advisor, such as a Creative Business Lawyer to support you);
3. Setting clear boundaries with an open heart is not to be taken lightly, it may very well be the key to a continuing healthy partnership (boundaries can be challenging, but without them, resentment will likely build);
4. Not only be willing to have the difficult conversations, demand it (the agreement process I’ve entered into with my new partner Rachel began with me inviting Rachel to share everything that might be hard to talk about);
5. Take all feedback, critique, and even criticism with an open mind; take nothing personally, and before reacting in defense to a perceived attack, really consider what’s there that could be true before responding (hard, but necessary).

If you have additional partnership tips, please add them in the comments.  I am committed to making this partnership a success and would love to know if there is anything I’m overlooking as we build it.  Oh, and if you have not already gotten the evolutionary interviews we give away free here, do it now because with Rachel on board they will disappear very soon to be replaced by our next evolution.